Professor resumes teaching controversial 'Deviance' class

By Sarah Kuta, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
01/14/2014 08:21:45 PM MST

After getting over a few first-day jitters, University of Colorado sociology professor Patti Adler on Tuesday delivered her first "Deviance in U.S. Society" lecture since the month-long controversy over a prostitution skit in the class.

In front of a nearly packed auditorium inside the Cristol Chemistry and Biochemistry building, Adler introduced her class to the course syllabus, website, exam formats and other seemingly routine tasks usually handled on the first day of a new semester.

But the room buzzed with anticipation before and after the class, and Adler's student audience listened raptly to their teacher, who has gained near-celebrity status on the Boulder campus.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome to 'Deviance in U.S. Society,' to my friendly faces out there, and the soon-to-be-friendly faces out there," Adler said to start the class.

Then she paused.

"I'm so, so nervous," she said, breaking into laughter. "I've had a really rough last few weeks. I don't know if any of you have heard. ... And so I actually made a PowerPoint for my first class. This is the first time ever. I've been here 27 years and I've never had a PowerPoint for my first class.

"I'm so afraid I'm going to forget something."

After about 10 minutes or so, Adler regained her composure and spoke with ease to the roughly 380 students in the auditorium — even managing to take a few shots at the university administration.

The lecture also was the first time Adler publicly acknowledged that while she decided to return to the Boulder campus after winter break, she won't be staying long.

Adler told the class that she will teach "Deviance" this spring semester and during "Maymester," which allows students to take one intensive course over three weeks in May.

"This is the big show," she said. "This is the last waltz. That's it."

University of Colorado sociology professor Patti Adler delivers her first lecture of the semester in her controversial "Deviance in U.S. Society" course on the Boulder campus Tuesday. Adler said she dressed as a homeless person for her opening lecture. See a video interview with Adler at dailycamera.com. (Jeremy Papasso / Daily Camera)

Adler told the students to tell their friends they can still enroll for her last class ever. She said there still were plenty of seats available for the nearly 500-person lecture.

"It was sold out, but then when they fired me," Adler said, pausing as the entire auditorium burst into laughter. "...A lot of people dropped and so then they reset their classes and they don't even have room for it. There are 100 empty seats, so go tell all your friends."

'So happy to be back'

Adler went on to say that she loves having a full classroom because there's more "energy." She told the class that she'd been feeling depressed and anxious until she walked back into the classroom.

"This is the best I've felt in a month, just being in this room here," she said. "It's stressful when the whole University of Colorado attacks you and the provost defames your character and says horrible lies about you. Just being here is always a cheer-me-up.

"I'm so happy to be back. I'm so grateful to my students from last semester who enabled me to be here teaching you this semester. Without them, there would be no 'Deviance in U.S. Society' taught by me."

With that, the entire auditorium broke into loud applause.

Adler's reference to being attacked stems from a statement released last month by CU Provost Russell Moore that suggested that Adler may have violated the school's sexual harassment policy.

CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said he "respectfully disagreed" with Adler's statement in class Tuesday that Moore defamed her character.

"The provost did not defame Professor Adler, he simply tried to elevate for the faculty and the university community the importance of student welfare in the classroom and student safety as a value co-equal to academic freedom," Hilliard said. "Nobody accused Professor Adler of any misconduct, either directly or indirectly."

'This class has been rated R'

Moore's remarks followed an outcry from students after Adler told her class in December that she was being forced into early retirement because of her prostitution skit, which she said was investigated by the Office of Discrimination and Harassment in November.

CU officials denied forcing Adler to retire, but said they had concerns about students being coerced into participating in the skit and possibly being filmed without their consent. Undergraduate teaching assistants perform as various types of prostitutes during the skit.

After initially suspending Adler from teaching "Deviance" in the spring, the university said she could return if the course passed a review by her peers in sociology.

When the class passed the review, Adler decided to return to campus rather than retire with the help of a financial incentive.

Adler jokingly referred to the Office of Discrimination during her lecture, putting up on the projector screen a picture of the rating text typically shown before movies and movie previews.

"This class has been Rated R by the Office of Discrimination and Harassment," Adler said. "I joke, but, in actual fact, this is a deviance class. We will be discussing topics that are sensitive."

She went on to say that she's trying harder to be sensitive about issues discussed in the class such as rape, prostitution, drugs and sex.

"Goddamn, where did the role of fun go?" she said. "It's really hard to have fun. Everyone's so sensitive."

'Even more intriguing'

As students began filing out at the end of class, many stuck around to speak to Adler, some giving her hugs or shaking her hand.

Sophomore Megan Petersen, who had only heard about the class from friends before the controversy last month, said she's interested to see how Adler teaches the course this semester.

In the fall, Adler gave her now-famous prostitution lecture toward the end of the semester. Adler hasn't said when that lecture will be delivered this spring or what changes she'll make to the skit, if any.

"I'm really anxious to see how it's gong to go and what it'll be now that there's been this drama about it," Petersen said. "I was enrolled before and then all this drama happened with (the skit) and it made it even more intriguing, I guess."

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